Keep Shetland Sheep
This article is available online in audio form at MotherEarthNews.com
When I was growing up, my family had a variety of livestock, including Angus beef cattle, chickens of all kinds, horses, and Corriedale sheep. I would show a few of the sheep each year at the county fair when I was in 4-H, but my mother spun and knitted the wool. To her credit, she tried to teach me to knit and crochet several times. I learned to crochet but never caught on to knitting. Fiber arts just weren’t on my radar in my younger years.
When my husband and I eventually moved back to the family farm, the sheep had been sold off, but the beef cattle and a few horses were still around. We added chickens but, until I finally learned how to knit, we didn’t think to add sheep. I started knitting with commercial yarn, and then local, hand-dyed yarns, and then I learned to spin so I could make my own yarn. Meanwhile, we sold the beef cattle and ended up with plenty of pasture growing grass. The next logical step was to get sheep, shear them, and transform the fleece into yarn. It seemed like a great idea at the time. How hard could sheep farming be?
My first choice was Corriedale, the sheep breed I thought I knew. I remembered them as relatively docile, good on grass, able to produce good wool, and medium-sized. Guided by my memories, I went to a local shepherd who raises champion-caliber Corriedales, bought a few ewe
